Day 30

Review / Share With Friends / Take It Farther with these Resources

DAY 30: Review / Share With Friends / Take It Farther with these Resources

Welcome to Day 30 of my 30 day security challenge, the month long challenge I created to help you gain control of your privacy and security online. You can follow along with the whole series at snubsie.com where you can also download a checklist, and subscribe to youtube.com/tekthing for the entire video playlist.

You've officially reached the end of the challenge! Pat yourself on the back, go out and buy yourself some Starbucks or a new video game, and freakin treat yourself. This was a big challenge and you should feel accomplished and much better about your online security and privacy.

Today, I'm going to leave you with a few last minute pointers that I thought of while I developed this 30 day security challenge, as well as some awesome feedback from folks who watched along. If you want some additional reading material, I've linked to ALL the things in the shownotes for today, including resources I've used throughout this challenge and some brand new ones that I didn't share until today.

BUT FIRST! I want to thank you for joining me on this journey. This challenge was done completely by me, which is why I posted the entire thing on my blog. I wanted it to reach a big audience so I posted each video on our TekThing channel on youtube, and monetized them as much as possible on the platform, which honestly isn't much, but if you really got some good info out of it, please consider contributing to the TekThing Patreon or my own support links found at snubsie.com. I really appreciate it, since this 30 day security challenge wasn't sponsored by any companies. It was a work of love.

So, onto some additional pointers! When it comes to physical security, some optional things you can do include putting tape or a privacy sticker over your webcam. It sounds stupid but it's a thing. I recently shared an article about folks who install malware on girls computers, then call them their "slaves". Ew. Another thing you could do on your computer is to set up a BIOS or a firmware password. These are passwords that are required upon bootup ONLY and are tied to the physical device. You cannot forget these, as they cannot be changed by reinstalling the operating system.

For internet hygiene, another thing to consider is what you're taking photos of. If you've gotten a new ID, car, or credit card, don't take a photo of it. Your license plate, ID, and credit card all have information tied to you, so protect them from the internet. Taking photos of travel tickets is a big no-no, because social engineering tactics could put you at risk of losing your flight to an attacker or having someone mess with your itinerary. Taking photos of house keys puts you at risk of someone 3D printing a copy of your keys.

For reference articles and online sources, definitely hit up some of these sites. The first few sites are overviews of security tools and tutorials that can be super helpful if you have the time to read them. The Department of Homeland Security (what? I know.) has a resource lists in downloadable PDF form for everyone from kids to law enforcement. Security In A Box lists security advice based on operating system and includes Linux for the pro users out there. The EFF runs one of my favorite sites for info called Surveillance Self-Defense and has well written overviews to dig deeper into the theory behind many of the tools and protocols that I've recommended during this challenge.

I've already recommended several other sites in this 30 day security challenge, but in case you need a recap, each of the ones I've provided previously will also be available on this episodes shownotes page, so you can easily bookmark this page and come back to the material whenever you need it.

Lastly, do a review! Did you miss or skip any days? Did you want to go back and consider the "pro tip" options I gave for taking your privacy a step further? Now's the day to go back and finish those steps before closing out your 30 day security challenge.

Make sure to check out the comments on our youtube episode pages for this series, as I've seen tons of excellent comments come through with regard to other security and privacy minded tips you can implement.

So how'd you do? Did you run into any hiccups? Did you complete each step? How long did it take you? What did you find out about your own security while working through the challenge?

Your 30 day security challenge is now complete! Thank you again for joining me on this journey for the month. Share it with your friends now! Find all the info on youtube.com/tekthing and hit up snubsie.com for the shownotes. Again, I'm Shannon Morse - Congratulations!